WHAT IS A TRIPWIRE OFFER?

Learn about “tripwire” offers and how they can help your marketing campaigns and promotions.

What is a TRIPWIRE OFFER – Successful Digital Marketers and Growth Hackers love tripwire offers – Discover why they are the top secret to get new customers.

TRIPWIRE DEFINITION IN MARKETING CONTEXT

A tripwire by definition is turning a lead into a customer by offering them a low-cost, relatively painless offer, then earning their trust and permission to up sell them once they have experience your basic product or service.

It is meaning is that instead of asking a prospective customer to buy your more expensive or the most premium products or services; first up you repurpose or repackage parts of your more expensive services based on a certain more detailed solution in a way that delivers value and also “teases” what else is in store if someone chooses to buy more from you.

Once your new customers – who have accepted your tripwire – have bought even an inexpensive item from you, they are more likely to purchase something else.

The tripwire terminology comes from the military meaning a type of a wire used as a trap or alarm to notify about the presence of someone and sometimes even to get him down with the less involvement. In business and specially in the startup community, tripwires is a selling growth hacking tactic quickly to grow an initial audience and customer base.

WHY USING A TRIPWIRE

With a free offer, people will often be suspicious and wonder “what is the catch?”, whereas with a low-cost offer (tripwire) it tends to convert better because it helps to alleviate that suspicion.

Plus once someone goes from lead to buyer, they are more emotionally connected to what you offer next. It also allows your brand to sell many of these inexpensive items across different topics to test what your market wants and then customise follow-up communications that are more targeted.

A TRIPWIRE IN MARKETING AND GROWTH HACKING

Think of a Tripwire like dating.

If you ask a random stranger to marry you, chances are they’re going to end up saying no. If they actually say yes, there’s something wrong!

But the reason they’re going to say no, is because they don’t even know you. But if you ask a random stranger, “Hey would you like to go out for coffee?” There’s a much higher chance that they’ll say yes. And if the coffee date goes well, then you may ask him/her for dinner, and if the dinner date goes well, you may have more dates. Then you may end up moving in together, then fast forward a few months, then you may continue dating for a year or two. And then if you ask her/him to marry you, the chances of him/her saying yes are much higher.

“A tripwire is an initial cool offer that is impossible to resist. A tripwire says: hey, lets do an easy thing together, with a low price with a great benefit” says Mauricio Escobar – Global Head of Digital Marketing Strategy at eDigital

By getting people to take small little actions, you’re much more likely to get them to say yes to your big core offer. A good example of a business who does this well are Pizza Shops: a pizza for $4.99. Such a good deal, it is an offer impossible to resist: A tripwire.

Sure, they may not be making that much money of that pizza or that offer, but if you fast forward that customer might have spent thousands of dollars during many years because of that initial offer. That Tripwire, which is a “micro-commitment”, get people to try first in and then, they are more likely to spend much more money with that Business.